Originally posted by Beverly Bowen, School of Government, September 25, 2026
In North Carolina, 26.8 percent of older adults live alone, with 1 in 4 globally experiencing isolation, and 1 in 10 dealing with the effects of depression caused by isolation. Left unaddressed, that isolation frequently leads to heart disease, anxiety, and dementia, along with other severe, life-altering health consequences. Their families have grown up, and old friendship circles are beginning to dwindle. What waits for them in this new season of life?
School of Government faculty member Julie Beasley and her team are giving local governments new tools to tackle senior isolation.This fall they launched the “More Than a Helping Hand” pilot project, thanks in great part to support from the School of Government, the ncIMPACT Initiative, and Civic Federal Credit Union.
“The initial phase of the project is being launched in a three-county area, and we hope to have an impact and find a positive link between volunteering and perceptions of health and wellness outcomes such as anxiety, depression, social isolation, and self-efficacy,” said Beasley.
She is working with Lisa Herrera in the Department of Psychiatry in the UNC School of Medicine and Leopolda Santana with NC State University. The pilot currently serves Durham, Orange, and Chatham counties. Herrera, who connected with Beasley at UNC’s Faculty Development seminar, speaks to the heart of the collaboration.”Gratitude and hope are the words that summarize what the purpose and goals are for the ‘More Than a Helping Hand’ project. This project resonates with us on a personal and professional scale as we acknowledge how life changes can lead to social isolation and difficulty finding meaning.”
Beasley’s road to “More than a Helping Hand” began before her time with the School of Government, or even in North Carolina. Beasley worked as a project manager at the Observing Civic Engagement Lab during her doctoral studies at Indiana University, a role that significantly influenced her current project.In that position, Beasley studied various ways that strengthening civic engagement impacted local communities. Social engagement is a key tool to mitigate isolation and loneliness.
“More than a Helping Hand” engages older populations through volunteer opportunities, with the intention of reducing their risk of social isolation.“We hope to have a dual impact through changing the lives of participants and providing support for communities,” said Beasley. “The goal is to help foster cross-sector connections to develop sustainable programs alongside citizens who contribute time, skills, and expertise to local nonprofit organizations that are also seeking to provide services and transform communities.”
Josh Davis, a current student in the School’s Master of Public Administration program, was assigned to Beasley’s team as her research assistant early in 2025.“One of the things that has made my experience in the UNC MPA program so valuable is how our faculty connect both research and theory to practice,” said Davis. “It is especially meaningful to be a part of research that addresses challenges facing communities that will have a lasting impact on older adults across North Carolina.” Davis has taken an active role since the project’s conception.
For the pilot program’s first year to be successful, the team at “More than a Helping Hand” works hard to integrate the 55+ community into local volunteer opportunities. Davis expressed eagerness to continue an active role and to make the connections between local governments and nonprofits necessary for this project to thrive.
The future of the project is hopeful but uncertain. The pilot is twelve months long, with six months dedicated to data collection and focus groups. Beasley is looking for an opportunity to extend it. “Our research team has long-term aspirations to develop this into a multi-year project, expanding into more rural areas and reaching isolated communities across North Carolina.”
Connecting seniors with nonprofits, adding community resources, and securing additional outside funding will be paramount to meeting that goal, particularly as the project looks to grow beyond its current three-county footprint into rural communities where resources are often fewer and farther between.“Ideally, I’d love to see this project expand each year, with an annual event bringing volunteers together with the support of the School of Government and the School of Medicine,” stated Beasley.
This project reflects not just Beasley’s research, but her life’s work. “I, personally, have a heart for leadership and service, having spent many years volunteering and serving on boards. I am excited to inspire our older adult population—who have so much wisdom and compassion to share—to connect with organizations that align their passions and realize the public value they contribute through strengthening organizational and community capacity.”
“Our aim is to provide networks of support to local government departments on aging, senior centers, regional councils, and nonprofit organizations—while positively influencing the health and wellness of our aging population. It’s a multi-generational movement requiring the collaboration of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors,” said Beasley. “I am eager to see this project come to life and hear stories of lives that are changed in ways that meet the vision of the School’s founder, Albert Coates.”
“At the end of the day, the School of Government is all about improving the lives of North Carolinians, helping public officials and everyday citizens get a better handle on how state and local government works and how to make it better. That’s exactly what this project is trying to do.”
Get involved with “More Than a Helping Hand” through their website: https://morethanahelpinghand.sog.unc.edu/
Originally posted by Beverly Bowen, School of Government, October 26, 2026
Albert and Gladys Coates Term Professor Whitney Afonso will be inducted into the National Academy of Public Administration as part of the 2026 cohort.
Afonso is a professor of public administration and government who educates public officials and teaches in the UNC Master of Public Administration (MPA) program. Her research focuses on state and local public finance, with an emphasis on local sales taxes, and she often works with elected officials and practitioners across the state. She was elected vice chair of the Association for Budgeting & Financial Management (ABFM) in January 2026.
NAPA fellows are highly regarded in the field of public administration and available to advise governments upon request. Afonso joins more than 1,000 current fellows; among them are School of Government faculty such as Kimberly Nelson, Willow Jacobson, Leisha DeHart-Davis, Carl Stenberg, and David Ammons, as well as several MPA alumni. The fellowship is also composed of former federal cabinet officers, members of the U.S. Congress, governors, mayors, and state legislators, as well as prominent scholars, executives, and nonprofit leaders.
Induction of the new fellows will occur during NAPA’s2026 National Conference in November at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, D.C.
Afonso’s selection as a NAPA fellow follows her recent recognition by the ABFM with the 2026 Scholarly Engagement Award. The award recognizes exceptional public budgeting and finance scholarship from the previous year that serves the public or community and is aimed at practitioners and public servants.
Afonso is being recognized in part for creating and directing the North Carolina Certified State Government Budget Professional Program in 2025. “The goal was to establish a professional development opportunity for state government employees working in budget roles—an area challenged by high turnover and numerous unfilled positions,” said Willow Jacobson, colleague and director of the School of Government’s MPA program. Afonso built the program’s curriculum around scholarly literature and real-world needs, with input from the Office of State Budget and Management practitioners and School of Government colleagues. “[She] intentionally approaches training, research, and engagement with students and practitioners to ensure that they leave with new knowledge, skills, and abilities to more effectively do their work.”
Both honors reflect Afonso’s commitment to making public finance research useful to the people who put it into practice.
Join us virtually for the 2026 Deil S. Wright Public Service Forum. Tied to the this year’s Immersion, “Meeting the Need While Changing the System,” will feature a conversation with Amy Beros, President and CEO of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC and Norbert Wilson, Director, Duke World Food Policy Center; Professor of Public Policy; Professor of Food, Economics & Community at Duke Divinity School.
Join students, alumni, faculty, staff, friends, and families as we kick off the academic year at the annual kickoff picnic hosted by the UNC MPA alumni association!
As a new semester at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill kicks into full swing, the School of Government’s Master of Public Administration faculty and staff are busy at work welcoming new and returning students. With summer now behind us, the School decided to check in with Dean Aimee Wall and MPA faculty to find out what they listened to and read during the summer—right as they kick into the new fall semester.
Ricardo S. Morse, Professor of Public Administration and Government
“I finished a real page-turner of a book this summer called Left for Dead by Eric Jay Dolin. The subtitle kind of says it all; it is about ‘shipwreck, treachery, and survival at the edge of the world.’ It is a story that takes place in the Falkland Islands during the war of 1812, and the twists and turns it takes are one of ‘those real-life is stranger than fiction’ kind of stories.”
Kimberly L. Nelson, Professor of Public Administration and Government
“I have three books I have started recently. They are: Finding Grace, The Chain, and Getting to Yes. Two fun books and one workbook. I would describe The Chain as a crime thriller. I just started Finding Grace, so I can only say that it has a great beginning. I also recently finished a book titled, Who is Government? I would definitely recommend this book for MPA students. The author Michael Lewis uses a set of essays to highlight the importance of the work of the government bureaucrat. Reading this book validated my passion for public service.
Podcasts help me relax at night before going to sleep. I like history podcasts and true crime, particularly ‘American Scandal: The Plague of San Francisco’. The podcast tells the story of a bubonic plague outbreak in San Francisco in 1900 and how a young, early bacteriologist tries to stop it and is faced with a corrupt city government that hinders his efforts.”
Charles Szypszak, Albert Coates Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Government
“I’m reading Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides, about a troubled family from South Carolina. I was reminded of the title while watching Ted Lasso. In the show, Ted asks others about their favorite books. His is The Fountainhead, which is one of my all-time favorites. A therapist for the team tells Ted that hers is The Prince of Tides. One interesting aspect of the book to me is the contrast of the author’s portrayal of the cultures of New York City and South Carolina.”
Aimee N. Wall, Dean
“I just finished reading Southern News, Southern Politics by Rob Christensen. The Daniels family and the Raleigh News and Observer serve as the anchors—but this book is really a fascinating study of the role of journalism in local, state, and even national politics. I learned a great deal about North Carolina politics and history. I came away with a long list of questions I need to investigate and rabbit holes I need to go down.”
Jeffrey Welty, Professor of Public Law and Government
“One book I’m reading now is Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Much of the book is about housing, infrastructure, and how to make our great cities more affordable and more livable. It also examines the unintended consequences of zoning and development regulations—concerns that are as pertinent in Chapel Hill as they are in New York or San Francisco.”
Teshanee Williams, Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Government
“I listened to ‘Ear Hustle’, which is a podcast that shares daily realities of life inside prison and stories from people once they’ve gotten out. It was created inside San Quentin State Prison by visual artist Nigel Poor and formerly incarcerated men Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams.
The episodes cover everything from the nuances of prison culture to the challenges of reentry, told in first-person narratives that are raw, empathetic, and often surprisingly funny. I enjoy listening to it because it brings attention to many unseen issues and raises awareness of the benefits associated with rehabilitation in prisons. The podcast’s stories, whether about cooking in a cell or facing parole hearings, offer a humanizing and eye-opening look at life during and after incarceration, showing resilience and the importance of second chances.”
Please join us for a UNC MPA Special Topics Webinar discussing public administration and the nonprofit landscape. Attendees will hear from our nonprofit faculty advisor, Dr. Teshanee Williams, current student Emma Gilliam who helped co-found our nonprofit student organization Leaders for Good, and esteemed alum Tim Leshan who has worked in nonprofit leadership for the bulk of his career. Panelists will discuss how their careers/interests began, why they obtained the MPA, how the MPA has supported their careers, and advice on the current landscape of nonprofit administration and how to navigate a caeer in it.
Featured panelists include:
Teshanee Williams – Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Government
Emma Gilliam – Current UNC MPA Student, Co-Founder of Leaders for Good
Tim Leshan – Chief of External Relations and Advocacy Office, Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, UNC MPA Alum
The panel will be facilitated by our Director of Admissions, Cara Robinson
A new MPA tradition is the “So You’re an Expert in What?” event for students to get to know some our esteemed School of Government faculty members. This year we are inviting prospective students to attend virutally and see how our students can benefit with all that happens across the School. At this event, three School of Government faculty will share about their areas of expertise, and they only have seven minutes to do it!
Moderator:
Jeff Welty, Professor of Public Law and Government; Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs
Speakers:
Jacqui Greene, Associate Professor of Public Law and Government
Christopher Mclaughlin, Professor of Public Law and Government
Kristi Nickodem, Assistant Professor of Public Law and Government
The North Carolina Benchmarking Project was established in 1995 to help municipalities compare their service and performance trends with other participating units. Each year, throughout August and September, partner municipalities submit performance and management data across eleven services to the University of North Carolina’s School of Government. The Benchmarking Project audits and uploads that data on a dashboard and invites participants to eleven performance strategy sessions in November to analyze data and discuss shared challenges and practices likely to resolve those challenges. The information from the strategy sessions and the dashboard is synthesized into annual reports.
Last year, the Benchmarking Project leveraged AI to manage report-development and data-auditing processes. The use of AI in these two tasks significantly reduced the hours spent on them, decreased the error rate, and strengthened the outcomes. This bulletin describes how the Benchmarking Project team adopted AI for that data auditing and report development. The team hopes that its experience will serve as an example for others thinking about leveraging AI to improve their processes.
Keegan Huynh, a special projects coordinator for the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, and Christopher L. Cole II, a project coordinator for the North Carolina Benchmarking Project, co-authored this bulletin.
Download (pdf, 438.33 KB)
By Andy Bradshaw
The School of Government congratulates faculty members Whitney Afonso and Kimberly Nelson, who were honored with receipt of the 2025 Best Book Award from the American Society for Public Administration’s (ASPA) Section on Public Administration Research.
Their joint publication—Municipal Corruption: From Policies to People—is the most comprehensive exploration of corruption in U.S. municipal governments written to date. Exploring the 30-year period from 1990 to 2020 and including all U.S. municipalities with populations of 10,000 people or more, Afonso and Nelson used both quantitative research and case study analysis to answer the question of why some municipalities fall victim to corrupt acts, while others do not. It tells the stories of a number of communities that suffered through public corruption; the book investigates factors that contribute to a greater risk of corruption in municipalities and identifies steps to prevent corruption in communities―including strengthening resident interest and involvement in local affairs, offsetting the decline in local journalism, and reinforcing scrutiny by state governments.
The publication begins with two sets of quantitative analyses that expand on work published in two peer-reviewed articles. From these studies, the book concludes that the council-manager form of government is associated with lower risk of a municipal corruption conviction. The remainder of the book dives deeper into the variables associated with corruption risk through its examination of corruption cases in U.S. municipalities and provides recommendations for methods for reducing corruption risk.
The collection of the data was challenging, according to Nelson.
“The process of collecting the data on municipal corruption was time-consuming; we spent more than two years collecting it,” she said. “We first used data from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section and supplemented it with a keyword search in newspaper databases to find corruption convictions through the courts system.”
“We are really proud of this book. It couples rigorous analysis with an incredibly important topic—public corruption,” said Afonso. “We analyze what governments may be particularly susceptible to corruption from bad actors and what are actual policies and levers that governments can pull to lower the likelihood of corruption. We hope that this book will be a resource to academics, state and local governments, and those interested in hindering corruption.”
ASPA’s SPAR welcomed nominations for books on public administration published in 2024 and 2023. The Best Book Award evaluates criteria such as outstanding accomplishment of the research objectives, high-quality writing, and potential to constitute a lasting contribution to public administration literature.
by Katie Geith
The Local Government Workplaces Initiative (LGWI) at the UNC School of Government is the only university-based center in the country dedicated to local government workplace climate research. The center is led by Dr. Leisha DeHart-Davis, professor of public administration and government and director of the Local Government Workplaces Initiative.
LGWI began in 2004 at the University of Kansas’s School of Public Affairs and Administration and was formalized after DeHart-Davis joined UNC-Chapel Hill. The center aims to help cities and counties create great workplaces and improve public service delivery by listening and responding to employees. Over twenty years, LGWI has surveyed, interviewed, and facilitated group discussions for over 25,000 local government employees and has completed 42 workplace climate surveys with local governments both inside and outside North Carolina.
“We aim to be the go-to resource for local government workplace climate improvements,” said Clay Fleming, assistant director of LGWI. “When local governments across the country think about listening to employees, we want to be the first choice.”
One service LGWI offers local government is a comprehensive workplace climate survey with evidence-based questions that can be customized according to a local government’s needs. Additional services include facilitating pre- or post-survey focus groups, infographics, creating action plans, and customized training for employees or leadership, in addition to research contract services.
Support in Guilford County
In 2021, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners updated the core values and goals for the County office. They established “Our People Matter” as a value, reflecting a desire to support employees well-being and provide a positive and compassionate office environment. They engaged LGWI to conduct a workplace climate study to give leadership a deeper understanding of employees’ perspectives and attitudes.
LGWI conducted two surveys, one in 2021 and one in 2023. The 2021 survey had a 63 percent response rate and revealed strengths in supervisory practices, teamwork, organization identification, and values, as well as opportunities for improving employee voice, pay and benefit satisfaction, and burnout.
Guilford County took recommendations from its employees and LGWI and set goals to improve results. Some of the action steps they took include creating a communications department, forming a committee that gives employees a voice in policy and workplace improvements, adopting new pay and benefit plans, increasing technology investments and adjusting staffing ratios to prevent burnout, and holding small group sessions for open discussions with leadership.
When LGWI compared the 2021 and 2023 survey results, it revealed that the County had 16 improvements, including greater employee voice, less burnout, and higher pay satisfaction. The response rate was also 11 percent higher than the 2021 survey, indicating more engagement.
“Guilford County has partnered with LGWI on two climate surveys, several employee focus group processes, and related follow-up initiatives,” said Daphne Taylor, assistant director of Guilford County human resources. “The LGWI team brings expertise, transparency, and objectivity to the process, which has fostered a sense of trust among our employees. The partnership has produced tangible benefits and has been well worth the investment.”
Through engaging LGWI, Guilford County was able to understand employee needs and implement action steps that improved the workplace.
Impact on local governments
Beyond Guilford County, other local governments have used survey results to transform their workplace climate through initiatives like:
“It’s critical for local governments to engage with their employees; the dividends are monumental,” said Lloyd Payne, city manager of the City of Concord. “When the City of Concord decided to survey its employees, we hired LGWI. As a result of what we learned, we have implemented dozens of new initiatives that have helped us keep our employee turnover rate low, even in the current job market.”
Data supporting innovative research
DeHart-Davis uses data from the initiative in her academic research. So far, the data has been used for 23 journal articles and an award-winning book.
“I am currently working with a group of scholars to study citizen incivility in local government,” said DeHart-Davis. “Incivility burns out employees, increases quit rates, and affects public service delivery. We are studying how local governments can manage incivility to protect employees and improve public service delivery. Data from LGWI is essential in projects like this”.
Several papers using LGWI data have won best-article awards, and DeHart-Davis received the 2024 Herbert Simon Award for the Scientific Study of Bureaucracy based on her research with LGWI data.
LGWI is an important part of the School of Government’s mission to serve the state and is an invaluable resource for local governments seeking to better understand their employees and improve their workplace climates.If you are looking to partner with LGWI on a project, reach out to sog_lgwi@unc.edu.
Published July 9, 2025